JOYFULNESS AND GRATITUDE – KEYS TO RECEIVING THE BLESSING OF THE LORD
From The HeartPublish date: 06/16/2002
45 All these curses shall come upon you and shall pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you do not obey the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and statutes which He commanded you. 46 They shall be a sign [of warning to other nations] and for a wonder, and upon your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness [of mind] and heart [in gratitude] for the abundance of all [with which He had blessed you], 48 Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord shall send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and in want of all things; and he will put yoke of iron upon your neck until he has destroyed you. Deuteronomy 28:45-48 AMP
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 says that if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commandments, many blessings will come upon you. But verse 45 says that if you do not obey the Lord your God, keeping His commandments and statutes, that curses will come upon you, pursue you, and overtake you until you are destroyed. Verse 47-48 says that you will end up serving your enemies if you do not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gratitude. If you are going to serve God, you should do it with the right attitude. The right attitude of mind and heart is to serve God with joy and to be grateful for His blessings on your life. The Amplified Bible says, that you should be grateful for the abundance of all with which He has blessed you and the NIV says that you should serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity.
If you are blessed, and you want to stay blessed, remember Whom it is Who blesses you and remember – do not forget - to be grateful and thankful to Him and to tell Him so!
However, if you don't feel very blessed and you are struggling just to make it, it is hard to be joyful or grateful. After all, how can you be joyful or grateful when you have no blessings to be joyful or grateful for? Of course, if you want to stay where you are, then you can continue to be grumpy and feel sorry for yourself, but if you want to lift yourself up and out of your situation, then you need to change your attitude and begin to thank God for His many blessings! You need to "count your blessings!" Remember all the good things that God has done for you and it will begin to lift your spirits. You will begin to have hope and then faith and then you will begin to expect blessings instead of curses on your life.
It is a medically proven fact that even if you don't feel good - if you make yourself smile – you automatically begin to feel better. In the same way when you change your perspective and count your blessings, your situation will begin to change for the better. If you change your attitude you could change verse 47 to "you will be abundantly blessed 'because you served the Lord your God with joyfulness [of mind] and heart [in gratitude] for the abundance of all [with which He had blessed you].'"
11 And it came to pass, as he went to
Ten lepers asked Jesus to heal them and all ten lepers were cleansed and cured, but only one, when he realized he was healed, turned back to thank Jesus and to give glory to God. Jesus was surprised that only one out of ten, a Samaritan at that, came back to thank Him. Because the Samaritan expressed his gratefulness with joy, not only was he healed, but he was also made whole. The Greek word translated here as "whole" is "sozo" which means to save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, do well, be whole or make whole. Ten were healed, but only one was made whole!
We would see so much more of God's blessings on our lives, if we would only change our attitude and be joyful and grateful for the blessing that He has already poured out on our lives.